Life of Guangzhou - Chinese-version Report on State of Children Issued on Universal Children's Day

Liu Chenyan performs "Celestial Beauty Scattering Flowers" during the opening ceremony for the Jiangsu Children's Peking Opera Training Course in a kindergarten in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, Sept.11, 2009.(Xinhua/Sun Can)

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Xinhua News Agency Friday launched in Beijing the Chinese-version Report on the State of World's Children to mark the Universal Children's Day and the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The launch was also part of Friday's Global News Day for Children aiming at raising public awareness on children's living environments and their development.

The CRC, adopted on Nov. 20, 1989, was the first legally binding international agreement on the protection of children's rights. Its core principles are non-discrimination, devotion to the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival and development, and respect for the views of the child.

At the launch Friday, a video of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's interview with Xinhua was played, in which Ban said, "The well-being of our children is of utmost importance to the United Nations and to the whole world."

Ban said more than 8.8 million children were still dying every year from preventable diseases, like pneumonia, diarrhea and malnutrition.

"Too many children, they do not have access to even primary education. Too many children, they are exploited and abused. And still too many children are recruited as child soldiers. This is totally unacceptable," he said.

Xinhua President Li Congjun said in a video played at the ceremony that it should be human nature to protect and care for children.

"However, it is an affront to our humanity that today, in the 21st Century, children in many parts of the world still live in the shadows of war, violence, poverty, exploitation, violation, fear and discrimination," Li said.

"It is children who are most prone to the harm of natural and man-made disasters."

The report, a Chinese-version special edition of the UNICEF series on "The State of the World's Children," details worldwide progress in protecting children's rights in the past two decades and the challenges that still exist, including the global economic downturn, humanitarian crises and climate change.

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